Getting To Know You
by DangerousDreams
Summary: A short drabble-ish piece about how Haruhi changes Kyouya's world and how he views it.  Really not that good.


A/N: The premise for this short little… I dunno what to call it… is a passage from "Never Been Like Him," one of my other short sucky drabbles. Which I may or may not post. Don't own anything.

Ootori Kyouya had always been a scientist at heart. He stayed on the outskirts of socializing, close enough to lightly dip his toes into the activities of his peers, but never even close to being submerged. He stayed away, closed off. He observed.

He observed Tamaki charming girls with his completely guileless flattery. And he once tried to be like Tamaki, making all the girls happy, but it took about a day and a half before he realized this was definitely not him, and retreated back to his high post of observer. He did become friends with Tamaki, and that was a huge step towards not looking down on everyone. But he could still basically tell what Tamaki was going to do before even Tamaki knew. He was closer with Tamaki than he'd ever been with anyone else.

He observed the twins in their narrow world, and he knew that even though on the surface he might appear to be like them, closed off, they were on whole different levels. They were on their own and didn't want to understand others or have others understand them. They ignored the world around them. Kyouya was the opposite. He took in everything that happened. He would not become close to the twins.

He observed Haninozuka Mitsukuni, and this person confused him for about a week until he realized that the childlike boy really had no hidden depths. He really was as cute and charming as he appeared to be on the surface. He learned to tolerate, deal with, the high energy boy.

He observed Takashi, and found him to be quite interesting in the way that he seemed to be in tune completely with Hani and his needs. It was guaranteed that if Hani was in any way unhappy, Mori would solve the problem almost before the problem even existed. It was a strange but heartwarming bond that the two had. So even if he'd wanted to become close to them, he felt as though he wouldn't be able to join that.

He observed the costumers. Most of them were always nervous, their hands constantly flitting about their bodies, adjusting their skirts, smoothing their ribbons, curling their hair around their fingers… They seemed to never just stay still. They would giggle at a register slightly higher than was normal, and they always had a pink tinge on their cheeks. Sure, some of them were a little interesting below the surface. He could see it in some of their eyes, a little more downcast than most, or a little more intelligent. But if all they ever let people see was the dumbed-down exterior, than most people wouldn't give them a chance. He didn't want to become good friends with someone who would favour a dumb, humiliating exterior over a cunning or interesting inner self.

Then he met Fujioka Haruhi.

He observed that the "gay honour student" was female. That he could tell right away.

But then, immediately, it was as if all his observational skills had just shut down.

He couldn't see into her. At all. Sure, he could watch everything she did, and take note of it in his mind. He could see the _what, _but he couldn't fathom the _why. _He couldn't fit her into a category.

She spoke bluntly. She got annoyed at people flaunting their wealth or belongings. She was unlike the costumers; she stayed still, content with how she looked [or she didn't even notice, which was more likely]. She had a low, gentle, soothing laugh, so different from the shrill calls of the customers. She was mellow. But she did have a curious habit of tapping her fingers lightly on a flat surface whenever she was restraining herself. She would also flatten her bangs with her left hand when she was nervous. She bit her bottom lip on the right side when she was thinking about something that bothered her. She rubbed her index finger and thumb together sometimes when she was trying to do math. She was amazingly insightful. And, worst of all, she took in as much as he did with those big brown eyes of her.

This was disconcerting for several reasons. One, he couldn't fathom her. He didn't understand her. He saw everything about her, but still somehow couldn't figure her out. Two, she was just as observant as him. This was worrisome because what if she saw into him? He didn't have the proper defenses for someone as insightful as her; usually his cold demeanor would scare people off at a first glance. They wouldn't pry. But she would. Third, he was beginning to obsess. Over a _commoner_. He watched her constantly. When he was done typing, or bored with accounting, his eyes would stray to her of their own accord. He absorbed everything she did, trying to understand, trying to learn. He knew all her quirky little habits, but he still could not predict what she would do in any given situation.

This was a totally new experience for him, and it threw him off.

And he knew the day would come when she'd look around with those observant eyes, and her eyes would tell him that it was okay that she knew as much about him as he knew about her, and her eyes would ask him to stop being a scientist, to step down, to join her. And the scariest part was… He would probably say yes.

A/N: Again, dissatisfied. There's so much I want to say with this, but I can't put it into words.

Even though I wrote a drabble about Hani noticing things, I think there's a huge difference between Hani and Kyouya, just like there's a huge difference between Kyouya and the twins. Hani notices things and just sort of takes some of them for granted. Kyouya observes, meaning he takes a simple little thing and strips it down to why, why people do certain things. And he doesn't join in. He's on the outside. And that's the easiest way I can think of to describe the difference between him and the twins too: He's on the outside of everyone, observing them. They are on the inside of their own little world, ignoring everyone. They don't care. And he's not bothered by the fact that he's on the outside, but he does "care" to some extent about people. He wants to know how they work, what makes them tick. And only once Haruhi came along did he start to want to be on the inside of humanity for the sake of being with other people. He didn't want to observe anymore, he wanted to be a part, even if it was only with this one girl, or this small group of seven people.

Basically… this series is so freaking deep. Honestly. It may look like such a cute, shoujo-ish, almost-parody anime/manga, but oh. My. Gosh. There's so much symbolism, and psychology, and just awesome stuff like that :3


End file.
